This archive report was first published on 2 December 2019.
Kenya, which hosts four licensed slaughterhouses, has put its citizens and livestock at high risk of contracting anthrax, rabies, and brucellosis, among other zoonotic diseases, according to a report by the Donkey Sanctuary.
Released last month, the report titled Under the Skin notes that donkeys are silent carriers of many diseases and often do not show signs of sickness.
“This large-scale movement of donkeys, often illegally and when they are under significant stress, poses an infection risk to all animals in the nearby environment,” the report states.
Donkeys owned by communities along trade routes are at risk of being infected with diseases carried by donkeys ‘passing through’; not only by direct contact but also via a bite from an infected carrier vector such as a tsetse fly,” the report adds.
Tests are rarely conducted on donkeys and therefore they remain undiagnosed as they travel across borders,” the report notes.
According to the World Veterinary Association, which called for a halt to the trade in donkey hide in April last year, the hides are used to produce a gelatin known as ejiao that is the key ingredient of one of China’s most popular traditional remedies.
However, the indiscriminate slaughter of donkeys without regard for their health status, coupled with the unhygienic conditions in which they are slaughtered and their hides processed, raises the risk that hides intended for ejiao production may be contaminated with disease-causing agents.
“Rarely are appropriate bio-security measures or hygiene equipment and procedures in place during these processes, leaving people highly vulnerable to contracting deadly infectious diseases,” the report warns.
Similar cases in Kenya and 43 other countries across the continent remained undiagnosed although reports of outbreaks were made.
“While the precise source of the outbreak is unknown, it is suspected to be due to the ‘illegal movement of animals’ largely sourced from a neighbouring country,” the report reads.
